A Perfectly Perfect...Chrysanthemum

My most favorite time of year is the beginning!  New faces.  Fresh haircuts.  Brand-new school supplies.  And excitement for a fresh start!

I love all the back-to-school activities and building that strong foundation in the classroom to set everyone up for success for the remainder of the year.   I love setting up expectations of how the class will run and then building that mutual respect between teacher and students.  I love the eagerness and anticipation that comes with each new day...figuring each other out and what the new dynamics will be.  How will everyone fit together?  How will we work together as a team and still let our individuality shine?

A perfectly perfect book to launch the year with (and one of my most favorite read alouds) is Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes.  I'm not sure of any teacher who isn't aware of Chrysanthemum but just in case...it's the story of a little mouse who is confident and proud of who she is and what she is named.  Until she goes to school.  Then all bets are off and she begins to doubt herself.  It's a fantastically written story with so many literary strategies and themes woven throughout. 

Last year, I decided to once again read the story but this time, added a little more substance to it.  We turned it into not only a reading and writing activity but also a character building activity.  (If your child's teacher doesn't do this, it's definitely one that can be done at home with parents.)  

Together we read the story and had some great, in depth conversations (yes, it can happen with firsties!) about the emotions Chrysanthemum must have been feeling before and after she went to school.  We even made some text to self connections.  After discussing emotions and connections, we talked about our own individuality and how important it is.  Even when working in a team, it's still okay to have our own ideas and thoughts.  Our parents gave us our very own special and unique names on purpose and we should be proud of who we are.

Then, it was art time!!  After a quick discussion about colors, I passed out letters to each student matching their first name.  They labeled the set of complimentary colors they wanted to use on their letter paper in pencil to create their art.  Then they moved to the colors stations I set around the room.  I reminded them that this is an activity to celebrate individuality so they shouldn't pick a color just because their friend is picking that one.  (In fact, if you need to, you could cap each station-there are 3-to 8 per station or whatever your numbers are.)

Students worked on gluing colored tissue paper to their letters.

Letter templates for sale below.

Sorry for the blurred faces!  It's a privacy thing.

After gluing was done, I told students their parents had homefun that night (insert loud and happy cheers here!) Parents had to write some adjectives on a list to describe their child and return the following day.  

The next day after much review about Chrysanthemum's story and purpose we used those words to add to our own individual art.

Students copying adjectives onto their papers.

I loved hearing things like, "Wow! My mom thinks I'm smart!" 

or

"I am charismatic!  What does that mean?" 

or even

"I can't read my dad's writing."

It was heart warming and sweet.  What a great way to expand vocab skills, too!

Then we added a picture to the colored frame and hung it up for all to see.  It was great to have students reading each other's adjectives as they were being hung and even for the couple weeks after.  Parents were amazed that students were able to write/copy and understand some of the larger words they had written.  All this and it was just the first few weeks of school.  Woo hoo!

Here's one side (not hanging yet).  For the complete activity...

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What a great way to launch the first few days of school!

Stay tuned...more is on it's way!